Browsing Tag

beauty

Product Review – Joico K-Pak Reconstruct Shampoo and Conditioner

Posted on 14th February 2014

I have had such good results with this product line that I wanted to share a review. Over the last three years I have had my hair foiled with highlights, then bleached and toned. The bleach really had taken a toll on my hair quality and when I moved to London my new hair salon recommend that I need to get protein into my hair straight away.

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They recommended I have a Joico treatment which at the time I had never heard of before. I thought that damaged hair was pretty much done for and might as well be cut out or lived with until it was long enough to grow out. However things have really come along in hair care and the reviews online seemed to be very impressive. I went ahead and ordered the Joico K-PAK Shampoo and the Joico K-PAK Conditioner, but I also paid for the full treatment which included the additional re-constructor treatment from the range twice over the space of three weeks.

Firstly the shampoo and conditioner smell amazing, I was expecting to smell like chemicals but no it’s very nice. Since using the two together for a few weeks I have noticed drastic improvements to the quality of my hair. It is pretty much back to how it was before the damage. Now that I’ve got it back to how I want it, I’m slowly going to reduce how often I use both the shampoo and conditioner as you do not want to put too much protein into your hair.

Price wise the two together are not the cheapest on the market but if you have damaged hair then it’s an investment to get your hair looking better. I paid about £45 for the two in the 1000ml size, so they are huge and will last a long time!

This is a product that really does work, if you are willing to spend the cash and put in the time it takes to really treat your hair then you can make your hair look at lot better while it grows out. I’ve been able to finally get my hair coloured again, this time I’ve gone much more dark blonde using low lights which I hope will be much healthier for my hair in the long run.

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Beauty Review – Body Shop Hemp Foot Protector and Routine

Posted on 28th January 2014

It’s winter in the UK right now and one way of telling that might be to look at your feet. If your feet have been dried out with all the cold air, long walks and post summer fun then listen up.

My feet used to be in excellent condition, I never needed a pedicure because my skin was perfectly soft and I rarely had to do anything but polish and tidy my nails to keep them looking healthy. Then I moved to London, in our new apartment we have hardwood floors, both myself and my husbands feet have taken a battering. Seriously, hard dried out skin is not something you want to sporting and definitely need correcting ready for spring/summer.

What products do I recommend?

You are going to need three things to really kick dry skin where it hurts:

A good foot moisturiser – Body Shop Hemp Foot Protector it’s £10 from the Body Shop but totally worth it which I will talk about in a bit.
A foot file – Body Shop Foot File £5 from the Body Shop is what I used because the reviews were so good, I wanted to try it for myself.
Cotton Socks – Body Shop Thirsty Feet Moisture Socks they are £7 from the Body Shop but you could use plain cotton socks if you want.

Body Shop Feet Products

The Hemp Foot Protector has been designed to really hydrate dry skin on your feet, it is amazing and will be a staple in my beauty bag until I find something even better! If you have dry feet and don’t know what product to buy, just buy it as it will fix your dry skin and quickly.

The Body Shop Foot File is a great replacement if you are looking for a new foot file, I used to use the VIE at home foot file during those summer months but as VIE at home is no more and mine needed replacement. This is an excellent replacement and it removes the dry skins from your feet in a gentle way.

Thirsty Feet Moisture Socks fit nicely for a variety of sizes of feet, mine are 6/7 and I wasn’t sure whether they would fit. They are made with The Body Shops community trade natural cotton from Mauritius which is nice to know, as well as this you can wash them in the washing machine on a 40 degree wash – Great!

How do I use them?

Use the foot file first, pretty much exactly how it sounds file your feet. This will remove the hard skin, I found the foot file to be really effective at this. Some of the files I have used before have broken, this one seemed pretty sturdy just don’t get it wet!

Once you’ve filed both your feet, focusing on the hard skin areas (ball of your foot, front pads and any toes with hard skin on) then you want to go ahead and take some of the Hemp Foot Protector. You don’t need very much of this, so just rub a little into both feet making sure to cover the worst areas really well.

The Hemp Foot Protector is where the magic is going to happen, I have tried lots of creams for your feet. Many of them don’t really feel like they have sunk into your skin and just feet greasy forever. This one however seems to be really great quality, not too bad of a smell either and sinks in quickly.

Next take your cotton socks or the Body Shop Thirsty Feet Moisturise Socks and keep them on for at least an hour. For best results do this routine before bed and sleep with the socks on. As they are cotton they will allow your feet to breathe while still allowing maximum potential for the Hemp Foot Protector to work.

You should notice afterwards an immediate improvement in the texture and smoothness of your feet, I would advise that your repeat this at least once a week during winter to keep your feet soft and gorgeous. If your feet are quite far gone then you might want to repeat the routine twice a week until things improve.

I would highly recommend all three of these products, they do what they say on the tin and you can’t ask for better than that. Perfectly winter fix at home after running around all day shopping in London and if you have time you could follow this routine up with a nail polish and file.

Beauty and Health Reviews

Beauty Review – Champneys Spa Treatments Citrus Blush Body Scrub

Posted on 27th January 2014

A good body scrub in my opinion is essential to use all year around to keep your skin smooth and moisturised. I don’t keep to this rule, but I do frequent spa’s often and usually on my list of carefully chosen treatments next to my massage is a full body scrub.

Back last year I visited one of Champney’s health spa’s in the UK which I had their Citrus Blush body scrub, after that treatment I decided I would go ahead and purchase the scrub and the oil they used so I could do the same thing at home.

Champneys Spa Treatments Citrus Blush Body scrub

So what exactly is in this tub of joy?

Now onto the scrub, you can buy the Champneys Citrus Blush Body Scrub for just £4.00 now from B oots which was part of the Champneys Spa treatment range. The scrub is made from cardamom, brown sugar and coconut fibres, lemon and Kukui nut oil. I really like the smell, some scrubs can smell really clinical but this smells very yummy and sweet although I wouldn’t recommend you try tasting it!

Although the recommendations on the tub are to use twice a week, If you have sensitive skin I would not use it more than once a week due to the consistency of the scrub. It’s a very coarse mix, which is great for removing the dead skin cells but you might over exfoliate if you use it too often.

How to use it like a spa?

Ideally you want to get a second pair of hands here or it’s going to take you a little longer. So you want to a small portion of the scrub on your hands topping up where required, rub the scrub into your skin in long sweeping motions concentrating on each area using your hands. To reduce mess you could do this in the shower or stand in the bath so you can wash down the grit afterwards. At the Spa they will exfoliate different areas in groups, so you arms, torso, legs then turn over and repeat.

Once exfoliation is completed you need to wash the product off using a shower or shower head, I would not recommend a bath unless you like the feel of grit below you. This scrub tends to leave a residue on your skin so you need to wash it off very well, you might even want to use an additional product to remove it like a good shower gel or the Champneys Spa Treatment Citrus Blush Shower Gel (£3.00).

Next make sure you skin is dry, then follow up with a good moisturiser all over the exfoliated areas. I recommend the Champneys Spa Treatment Citrus Blush Dry Body Oil (£4.00) which can also be found at Boots. This is the moisturiser that was used for my Spa treatment although I had the choice between oil based or cream based.

Champneys Spa Treatments Citrus Blush Dry Body Oil

Having not tried an oil based moisturiser before I wanted to see how it felt on the skin, I often find cream based moisturisers can be a little heavy. I would highly recommend this product, you can spray it onto your skin focusing again area by area and it drys very quickly.

It smells just as divine as the scrub and has cardamom, lemon, sesame and rice bran oils which are really great at leaving your skin smooth and radiant. You can even use this just after the shower while your skin is still slightly damp, which means it spreads further and sinks into the skin really well.

An added bonus is that I think both products look great in your bathroom too 😉